AACS declares Hex war on bloggers

THE BODY which is responsible for the encryption of the HD-DVD is incandescent with rage that millions of bloggers have published the software key that can break the technology's codes.

Speaking to the BBC, Michael Ayers, chair of the AACS business group said that bloggers had crossed the line by publishing the code number.

He said that that the outfit was looking at "legal and technical tools" to confront those who published the key.

Ironically, the publication of the key would have disappeared into the great hole that is the Interweb if the AACS had not used its considerable legal and technical tools to lean on Google and Digg.

Diggers got so miffed at what they considered an abuse of free speech that they started posting the number everywhere. There were even shirts and coffee mugs made with the number on it. Google reports that there are 283,000 pages containing the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without.

Ayers admitted glumly that what started out as a circumvention effort six to eight weeks ago had ended up on YouTube and on T-Shirts.

But it does not seem that the AACS had learnt its lesson about taking on the combined might of the net. Ayers still seems to think that the best way was to shove the toothpaste back in the tube by using some "legal and technical" steps to prevent the circumvention of copy protection.

He said that this was the first round and will not be the last. µ

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